One yard separated the East Syracuse Minoa football from the points it needed to secure a spot in the Section III Class A championship game – but it never got that yard.
Whitesboro kept the Spartans from reaching the goal line in the waning seconds of Friday’s sectional Class A semifinal at Fayetteville-Manlius, and the Warriors held on to beat the Spartans 20-19.
Up north, at Carthage High School, Jamesville-DeWitt also saw its sectional title dreams dashed, but in a wildly different manner as Indian River outscored the Red Rams 56-42 in the other Class A semifinal.
The high drama was at F-M, though, as ESM engaged in a battle with Whitesboro just as tightly-contested as the 27-26 decision the Spartans pulled out three weeks earlier.
Defenses ruled for most of the first half. Whitesboro’s Phil Gilberti scored on a seven-yard run, but that 6-0 lead vanished when ESM’s Alex Recor recovered a fumble deep in Warriors territory and it led to Dan Garris throwing a 17-yard touchdown pass to Nolan Penoyer with 2:42 left in the half.
It was still 6-6 when, early in the third quarter, the Spartans put together one of its patented marches, keeping it on the ground until Ny’Zhier Jefferson scored from one yard out, putting ESM in front, 13-6.
Now it was Whitesboro’s turn to rally, driving to ESM’s 10 before David Camerota found the end zone. Choosing to go for two, the Warriors again gave it to Camerota, who converted to give his side a 14-13 lead.
That extra point would prove quite important, for when Jefferson scored for the second time on a 20-yard run with 8:05 left to put ESM back in front 19-14, the Spartans tried for two and missed.
Gilberti made a big run of his own, 38 yards to the goal line, less than three minutes later, giving Whitesboro a one-point lead, but ESM began to put together a drive of its own, eating up both yards and time.
As the game ticked down to the final seconds, the Spartans reached the one. Three tries to get it in the end zone did not work, and on fourth down as the clock hit zero, ESM got stopped one last time.
By that slim margin, Whitesboro earned a sectional final date with Indian River, who beat J-D for the second time this month in a game that in no way resembled the 6-0 defensive battle IR pulled out on Oct. 13.
The Red Rams led 7-6 through one quarter, having converted the extra point following Nick Brotzki’s nine-yard TD pass to Luke Smith before IR got on the board with a 71-yard Kwaszi Gaddis sprint to the end zone.
Things started to open up in the second period, with J-D surrendering a pair of drives ended by scoring runs of six and eight yards by Ronnie Clark. Adam Honis did find Mike Anderson on a three-yard TD pass, so J-D only trailed 20-14 at halftime.
But a wild third quarter put IR in control as it put up 28 points, negating a pair of Honis TD passes to Pat Murad (of 27 yards) and Zach Goodson (of 40 yards).
Gaddis, on his way to 265 yards on 16 carries, found the end zone twice in this period, scoring on runs of 65 and 19 yards. In between those plays, William Jones picked up a J-D fumble and returned it 50 yards for a TD as Clark, who had 16 carries for 142 yards, scored for a third time from 19 yards out.
Despite all this, the Rams almost staged a miraculous comeback. Honis continued to burn IR with the passing game, tossing TD strikes of 19 yards to Anderson and 22 yards to Murad, cutting the Warriors’ lead to 48-42.
One more stop may have changed things, but IR clinched its sectional finals berth with a long drive that Brandon Smith capped with a one-yard TD plunge.
